Teaching and Learning Conference 2015 Takeaways: Application

The conference left me with many takeaway action questions and thoughts.

• How can we better serve our most challenging-to-teach students with detailed strategic plans that make time for relationship building, listening, response, and consistent, meaningful instruction? Sometimes I think we complicate matters by not making the time to think through a child's needs and program with depth and by diluting a program's strength with too many transitions, content areas, and educators.
• In what ways will I promote the National Parks 100th anniversary at my school? How will we make sure that fourth graders take advantage of the free visit and family pass?
• When and how will I use the Buck's Institute resources to deepen project base learning efforts and results?
• Should we incorporate Garcia's book on rabble rousers into the fifth grade curriculum and specifically into the biography project as a way to develop students' access to heroes and sheroes? How can we prompt students to think about the "hero" or "shero" he or she would like to be in their own lives?
• In what ways can we continue to develop teacher voice, choice, and leadership at our school What vehicles work to develop teacher leaders, and what other venues do we need in order to develop this powerful model--a model that helps us to teach and mentor young students and each other well? Also, what role does communication skills and use play in this endeavor? 
• I want to make the time to learn by watching Burns films and visiting more National Parks. 
• How do we make cultural competency visible in the work we do with regard to student/family/educator relationships, curriculum rigor and relevance, mindsets/behaviors, and the learning/teaching environment including foods served, signage, arrangement of rooms and furniture, and schedules?